Tube worker tells of bomb horror

A Tube worker today described the scene of horror after a bomb exploded in an Underground train near Aldgate station last week.

Olaniyi Falayi, 37, from Tilbury, Essex, raced to the scene of the blast just minutes after it went off and was one of first on the scene.

He said: "It was just carnage everywhere, blood everywhere. It was horrible."He said he had seen at least four bodies and more than 100 wounded.

He and other workers and emergency staff helped the injured out of the train.The station assistant, based at Moorgate, was at Tower Hill station waiting on the platform to get to work when he heard the blast.

He initially thought there had been a power failure causing problems on the line and decided to walk to Aldgate station.

When he arrived he saw injured people coming up from the platforms below but staff did not yet realise what had happened. It was around eight minutes after the bomb went off.

Mr Falayi offered to help his colleagues and went down into the station.

Eventually he and colleagues walked down the tunnel to where the wrecked train had come to a halt. More injured people were still walking towards them, away from the scene.

"When we got to the train we saw bodies on the tracks and a lot of wounded."We saw the damaged carriage. There were still people in the carriage screaming.

"We were able to calm them down."

Workers were unable to open the doors of the carriages and only managed to enter the train by going through a cab which was in between carriages. Once there, they marshalled passengers down to the end of the train where they could get off.

He told how he saw one woman with a metal handrail through her stomach and protruding out through the other side of her body.

"She was lying down, thrashing about. A British Transport Police officer jumped on and held her and told her to stop thrashing about."

At that point Mr Falayi said he radioed the station supervisor: "Send the paramedics down here. There are people dying on the train."

He and the other workers were sending walking wounded up the tracks to the station in groups of four or five to lean on each other as they made their way out.

He said it seemed like a long time before paramedics arrived on the scene but it may have been just 10 minutes.

He spent more than an hour under the ground helping people out of the carriages, some of whom were lifted away on makeshift stretchers made using blankets and ladders.

Asked about his feeling when he came across the train, he said: "When I first got to the damaged train I think I just lost all feelings. I just went numb. It was hours after that before I started feeling anything."

He said he had gone into St Botolph's Church next door, where people were being looked after following the crash, when the realisation of what happened came to him.

"I was really devastated. I shed tears. I was shaking and crying."He said there was one woman who had been thrown from the train by the force of the blast and appeared to have broken her back.

Paramedics were trying to keep her talking as she seemed to be slipping out of consciousness.

"She was still alive when she went up on a stretcher. I hope she survived," he said.

Mr Falayi said he went back to work the next day. He wanted to make sure his colleagues were all right and throw himself back into the job.

Asked if he was a hero, he said: "Not at all. There was no way I would see myself as a hero.

"I have been trained in evacuation by the London Underground. That is just what I do. That is my job."